The Beer Nut: Five great New England beer bars

Throughout New England, you can find dozens of really good beer bars -- a bar with a good draft selection, decent food and a friendly wait staff -- but only a handful are truly exceptional.

Norman Miller

During my beery travels throughout New England and beyond, I always seek out the best brewpubs and best beer bars.

Throughout New England, you can find dozens of really good beer bars – a bar with a good draft selection, decent food and a friendly wait staff.

But there are only a handful of truly exceptional beer bars – bars with hand-picked draft lists with rare beers, great food that pairs well with the beers on the menu and bartenders and waiters and waitresses that are as knowledgeable about beer as the geekiest of beer geeks.

This week, I’m taking a look at the bars I have deemed the "Five Great Beer Bars of New England," places where you have to go to if you really consider yourself a fan of better beer. I’m presenting this list in alphabetical order because there is no way I can pick one of these bars as better than the others.

The Armsby Abbey, 144 Main St., Worcester, Mass.

The Armsby Abbey is the bar I visit more often than any other on this list. While some bars will have 80 beers on tap and I’ve had 70 of them, the Armsby Abbey will have 21 beers on tap and I’ve only had three or four. Heavy on the rare Belgian ales, the Abbey also does a fantastic job of mixing some excellent American beers in their list. If you can’t find something you want on the draft list, open up the beer menu and pick one from the several hundred bottled beers they have available.

Beer not your thing? Don’t worry; the Abbey has one of the best cocktail menus you can find. Like the beer, all of the liquors are handpicked and small batch. There is nothing mass-produced here.

The food is all slow-cooked, and phenomenal. They have the best mac and cheese I’ve ever had, the cheese plates are incredible, the smoked bone marrow is so good, and if you happen to be there for the Abbey’s weekend brunch, be sure to grab a side order of bacon.

Ebenezer’s Pub, 44 Allen Road, Lovell, Maine

From the outside, Ebenezer’s Pub does not look like it is a place that is considered one of the best beer bars in the world. It’s in an old farmhouse bordering a golf course.

But, once you get inside and see the draft list and the coolers full of beer, you know you have reached beer nirvana.

Ebenezer’s Pub has 35 beers on draft, mostly Belgian, but with a good mix of other beers, such as hoppy IPAs, on tap at all times. They also have one of the largest bottled beer selections you will ever see with more than 700 bottles, many of them rare (a 1968 Thomas Hardy Ale from England, for example).

If you have a chance to meet owner Chris Lively, ask him for a tour of his beer cellar. It is one of the most incredible collections of beer you will ever see, including hundreds of rare Cantillon bottles from Belgium.

The food is worthy to be paired with the beer. My favorites are the Caesar salad topped with a nearly whole lobster and the Chimay burger made topped with Stilton cheese.

Lion’s Pride, 112 Pleasant St., Brunswick, Maine

The Lion’s Pride is the sister pub of Ebenezer’s.

The bar itself is beautiful, as are the hand-blown glass tap handles. Like Ebenezer’s, they have 35 beers on tap, and a huge bottled beer list, including some of the best beers you will ever try.

The food is also quite good – I recommend the Lamb Lollipops, the fromage plate or the Brie wontons.

Novare Res, 4 Canal Plaza, Portland, Maine

I love the Novare Res. Every time I go there I have a great time. The staff is my favorite of all New England bars – they’re friendly, talkative and, most importantly, love beer.

The Novare Res has 25 taps, two hand pumps for cask conditioned beer and a huge bottled list that includes more than 500 bottles. They also have a fairly large tequila and single malt Scotch list, if those are your things.

They have tons of events throughout the year, featuring breweries such as Rogue and Dogfish Head. They typically have beers from Marshall Wharf, a small Maine brewery that brews the best beers that no one knows about, available.

The food menu is not huge, but what they have is excellent – try the tuna tartar, some of the sandwiches or make your own selections from the artisan meat and cheese bar.

The Publick House and Monk’s Cell, 1648 Beacon St., Brookline, Mass.

The Publick House in Brookline is a well-known Boston-area bar that has earned its reputation as a top beer bar.

The Belgian beer-heavy menu includes so many good beers it will take you forever to make your choice. The bottled menu is separated by style and where the beers are from, so it is easy to find something that you really like.

I have a soft spot for the Publick House because that bar introduced me to two of my favorite beers – Great Divide’s Oaked Aged Yeti Imperial Stout and Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel – so I will always love this place.

The Publick House also has the best wings I’ve had in the Boston-area. The Belgian-style frites and the grilled chicken sandwich are also always great.

There are many other bars that came close to making the list, but these five are all truly great.

Norman Miller is a MetroWest (Mass.) Daily News staff writer. Email nmiller@wickedlocal.com or call 508-626-3823. Check out the Beer Nut blog at blogs.wickedlocal.com/beernut. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/realbeernut or on Pinterest at www.pinterest.com/beernutnorman.

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